What Is The Relationship Between Walt Disney And Powhatans

When a layman is asked to describe their idea of a Native person’s relationship with nature, it is the author’s experience that, most often, the description will involve Pocahontas’ song, “Colors of the Wind” – and not with unfair cause. Disney’s version of Pocahontas and the Powhatans embodies the “steward of the environment” trope in an extreme way, and the cultural ubiquity of the supposedly historical film makes it a powerful vessel to impact peoples’ perception of Native life. However, Disney’s unfortunate portrayal of all Native people being inextricably connected to and a natural protector of the land does more damage than cultural education – by stereotyping a people group based on one aspect of their cultural identity and minimizing
However, Disney takes a unique approach to this narrative through the alternate romanticization and vilification of Native violence. The Anglo-Powhatan conflict is radically simplified (to the point that the actual conflict could more accurately be called distant artistic inspiration than a historical source) in Pocahontas – however, of particular interest is not the conflict itself (which was undeniable and complex (Stebbins)), but rather the contrasting portrayal of the conflicts shown in the Disney film – that with the Massawomecks, and that with the
As a direct example, Grandmother Willow is, in fact, not a native species to America, and a tree of that type would not have existed on the East Cost at that time (“Weeping Willow”). Throughout the film, though, they typically flat landscape of the East Coast is manipulated to be convenient for plot points – there are certainly no enormous waterfalls to be found as close to the coastline as portrayed. Weather is also manipulated; scenes of the English encampment during dire times show stormy skies, and then cut immediately to the bright, sunny Native village. Storms seem to roll in and out of the coast during conveniently dark and light plot